The jury is still out on whether or not Jonathan Majors will even be playing the title role, but that doesn’t mean we can’t cross our fingers in the hope that Avengers: The Kang Dynasty avoids a longstanding issue that’s plagued the Marvel Cinematic Universe for over a decade, especially as it relates to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
While gathering together all of the franchise’s heaviest hitters in the one place demands that they’re presented with voluminous amounts of cannon fodder to decimate on a whim, it would be a wise move for Kevin Feige and screenwriter Jeff Loveness to try something different when the A-list roster of costumed crimefighters goes toe-to-toe with Kang the Conqueror and his minions.
In Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, the titular team were forced to defeat an army of faceless Chitauri goons. In Age of Ultron, they tackled a never-ending wave of identikit minions derived from the maniacal AI. In Infinity War, Wakanda became a battleground for a mighty scrap against Thanos’ alien invaders, while Endgame rinsed and repeated the formula with the minor exception of the conflict unfolding in a different location. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?
So far, all four Avengers epics have culminated in the heroes going up against a faceless army of useless henchmen (and hench-aliens) that are only there to ensure the climactic showdown doesn’t happen too early. We’ve been there, done it, and got the quartet of t-shirts to match, so we really don’t need to see it again in The Kang Dynasty.
Unfortunately, though, the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hints that we’re getting it anyway, even if may or may not be Majors in the role by the time the summer of 2025 rolls around.
